EU to push Asian counterparts on Myanmar

China, India and other Asian countries should press Myanmar's military leaders to drop charges against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and release her from house arrest, EU foreign ministers said Monday.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said there was an agreement at a meeting of the ministers here that the EU pursue fresh contacts with Myanmar's Asian neighbors at talks in Vietnam next week.

"It is right the EU put on the table all the potential ways of exercising influence including engagement and including sanctions, both of which will be undertaken with real vigor," Miliband told reporters.

The ministers discussed increasing sanctions against Myanmar's junta, to help restore democracy in the Southeast Asian country, but failed to agree on new measures.

Instead they will focus on putting pressure on countries like China, India and Thailand who could exert influence over Myanmar to change its ways.

Suu Kyi, one of Myanmar's more than 2,100 political prisoners, is on trial in Yangon for allegedly harboring an American man who swam to her lakeside home where she was under house arrest.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in Paris called the trial a "scandalous provocation."

Miliband and other ministers said the EU was concerned about the trial and efforts by the military junta to shove through "sham" constitutional reforms.

"The house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi is bad enough, but for her to be put on a show trial just adds to her pain," he said in Brussels. Suu Kyi has spent more than 13 of the last 19 years under detention.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana led the call for more sanctions, though others questioned whether existing EU punitive measures were working, including a travel ban on Myanmar's political officials, an arms embargo and a freeze of assets in Europe.

"We have seen the sanctions have not helped. They have not brought anything new," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.

Sweden's Carl Bildt said EU nations would pressure their counterparts from the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Myanmar, when they meet next week in Hanoi, Vietnam. Past efforts to cajole the Asian group to denounce Myanmar have failed.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been ruled by its military since 1962. The current junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy uprising, and has stepped up its campaign against opposition politicians and activists before elections planned for next year.

The EU imposed sanctions in 2006 to protest the junta's crackdown on pro-democracy groups, and added other economic sanctions in 2007, including a ban on imports of timber, gemstones and precious metals.